


a dead bleeding heart

by trite



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Crack Treated Semi-Seriously, M/M, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Technically Resurrection Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:40:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26736745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trite/pseuds/trite
Summary: It figures that Hux would give them trouble even when it comes to saving his own life.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Armitage Hux
Comments: 4
Kudos: 49





	a dead bleeding heart

**Author's Note:**

> The original prompt was “Dead character A reanimates only while character B is touching them”
> 
> Happy October! Once upon a time this fic was meant to be vaguely body horror-ish.
> 
> The Force does not work that way, suspend disbelief, etc.

“He’s not getting better.”

Poe frowns. “What do you mean he’s not getting better? A bacta tank is having no effect on him?”

“That’s precisely what I mean.” Doctor Kalonia looks troubled, which troubles Poe more than her statement did.

“Is he getting worse?”

“No, but I think it’s prudent to get him out and run some extra tests on him.”

“Let me know how it goes,” Poe says. It figures that Hux would give them trouble even when it comes to saving his own life.

He had seemed fine, is the thing. Not when Poe found him lying on the floor, but when he crouched down over his body and tried to find a pulse. It was there, steady. Hux had opened his eyes and gasped and he had seemed normal, relatively okay.

Poe had held out his hand to help him up and then allowed Hux to lean against him as they made their way out of the _Steadfast_. His breathing was shaky because he kept trying to put weight on his wounded leg, but other than that he seemed no worse for wear.

Poe had dumped him inside the ship and then shaken him awake when they landed, left him on the medbay and that’s apparently when it all took a turn for the worse.

Poe goes back to the medbay that night. They have Hux in a guarded room away from the other patients. It’s not that Poe thinks he’s going to escape, but it’s safer for everyone this way.

Hux looks terrible; completely ashen, lifeless. His body is cold, but as soon as Poe’s hand touches his arm he gasps, moves to sit up and clasps his hand against Poe’s. He’s shaking uncontrollably and leans over the railing to vomit at Poe’s feet. Poe steps away, but he can’t go very far with Hux’s vise-like grip on his hand.

Hux dry-heaves for a long minute, his grip on Poe’s hand getting warmer by the second. He’s too warm, actually. Feverish.

Poe pries his fingers away and goes to find the doctor.

“There’s no pulse.”

“That’s not possible,” Poe says, knowing full well how stupid it sounds. “Just a second ago–” It couldn’t have been more than a minute.

“General.” Kalonia interrupts him.

“I’m telling you, he–” When he places his hand on top of Hux’s, more of the same shaking and gasping occurs. Hux is sitting up now and the constricting grip is back where he has tangled their fingers together. Poe feels vindicated. He knew there was a point in denying the evidence right in front of him and going against all logic and reason. “See? I told you.” He’s so tired of watching people die, he’ll take what he can get.

The doctor does not look reassured by his words, though. Or even by Hux’s obviously alive form. If anything, she looks downright horrified.

She ushers Poe aside but when he does, Hux flops back down instantly. His now seemingly lifeless body lying back on the bed.

“I don’t understand.”

“I doubt that’s a new feeling for you,” Hux says, back to his normal obnoxious self.

If Poe hits him he can totally pass it off as more of the touching they’re meant to keep doing. _I was trying to keep him alive!_

“It’s the result of a Force ritual.”

Poe’s first thought is _is Kylo Ren going to keep fucking up our lives even from beyond the grave?_ , but he was underestimating Hux. This is all his fault.

“You fucking megalomaniac,” Poe says after Hux explains it.

“It wasn’t my idea,” he says defensively.

“Were you forced to do it?”

“This was years ago. I had just discovered the Force was real, but had not witnessed how destructive it truly was. I had no reason to say no,” Hux says.

Poe scoffs. “You just wanted immortality.”

“It’s not immortality. It’s a one-time fix and when Supreme Leader Snoke suggested it I didn’t think it would be just another mind game, a mockery. He only explained the conditions afterward. They were – unrealistic. Impossible. I just put it out of my mind.”

“Not impossible, obviously,” Poe mutters. “Just say it, I already know I’m not going to like it.”

“The first person to – touch my bare skin after my death would have to hold no ill-intent toward me. It was never going to happen,” he says flustered, his cheeks and nose going pink.

Hux has been breathing and talking and moving, but it’s this reaction more than anything else that proves to Poe how alive Hux obviously is. He allows himself to stare for a moment or two.

“So General Dameron was the first person to touch your bare skin, that is–”

“I was checking his pulse,” Poe feels compelled to add. Everyone needs to stop saying the words ‘bare skin.’

“–your corpse, and as a–”

Poe cringes. Not better. Poe’s over this part of the explanation already, he’s more interested in knowing things like, “you’re not sucking the life force out of me, right?” It’d explain why Hux is acting so shifty. He doesn’t think Hux has been lying so far, but he’s definitely hiding something.

“No, it doesn’t work like that,” Hux snaps.

“Well, how does it work? How do we get this thing to stick?”

Hux falters and looks away. “I– I don’t know.”

He’s lying. It could be that he’s embarrassed that he got in over his head, agreed to something without knowing all the facts, but Poe’s not convinced.

“I think we should contact Rey. I’ll explain the situation and ask her when she’ll be back,” says the doctor.

As soon as she’s gone, he glares at Hux. “Say it. You know how to make it stick, just say it.”

“I don’t know what–”

“It’s a human sacrifice, right? How many people do you have to kill this time?”

“It’s nothing like that,” Hux says scowling.

“So you do know what it is.” When he doesn’t say anything Poe stands up, Hux’s grip on his wrist tightening further. He’s definitely going to bruise. “I have better things to do, buddy.” It’s true, but he’s literally responsible for keeping the guy alive so he’s mostly bluffing.

“ _Fine_. It’s– the people involved need to – join physically.”

Join physically? The guy could just come out and say, “it’s fucking.”

“Yes.”

Poe laughs. “Buddy, if you wanted to fuck me so badly, you didn’t have to come up with this whole elaborate scenario. You’d go as far as playing dead? I mean, it’s flattering, sure, but all you had to do was ask.”

Hux glares at him and it makes Poe laugh harder. He doesn’t know how else to react. It’s obviously the truth, because it’s an extremely weird and embarrassing thing to lie about, but he doesn’t want to deal with the implications. Though the sooner they deal with it, the better. For all they know Hux is coming back more dead each time.

“Okay, okay. Can you go into specifics? Like, can it be anything or is there some sort of ritual we have to follow?”

“There’s no ritual, as far as I know,” Hux says.

“Alright. So what exactly–? Is there a specific act that maybe–? Or it doesn’t matter as long as you get to–?”

“I don’t know,” Hux snaps.

“So what? You want to try everything?” He feels laughter bubbling up to the surface and tries to suppress it. It’s nerves or just fucking disbelief. “Look, most people wouldn’t be this game, so I need you to work with me here.”

“I’m not lying. I don’t know anything else about it. I never thought I would have to.”

Poe sighs. “I need you to let go of my wrist. Let’s switch,” he says, offering his other hand.

“Why?” Hux asks, but takes his hand.

Poe shakes his newly-freed hand a couple of times, flexing his fingers. He almost expected to find an imprint of Hux’s fingers around his wrist. “Because I’m going to jerk you off. Let’s see if that works.”

This time when Hux comes back to life he only coughs a little. It lasted no more than a couple of seconds – Poe rushing to get his hands on him again.

Poe sighs. “How long until we can – again?” he asks pointing at Hux’s lap.

Attempt number one: still half dead. Half alive, if you’re an optimist like Poe.

“Maybe it has to be reciprocal,” Hux suggests.

“Maybe.” Poe wants to sleep. He was planning on going to bed a couple of hours ago, trying to get some rest and then bracing himself to face a new day spent scrambling not to fuck something up. His usual routine.

“I meant, I could–”

Poe looks at him. “You are alive, right?” This whole situation is fucking with Poe’s sleep deprived mind.

“What?”

“I just meant, you’re not gonna die on me in the middle of it, right?”

“Not as long as you keep touching me,” Hux says.

They maneuver until Poe is lying on the bed and Hux is straddling his legs. He struggles for a moment to undo the clasp of Poe’s pants, until Poe tells him, “let go of my wrist so you can use both hands.”

Poe moves his hand to the side of his face, then the back of his neck and keeps it there while Hux inexpertly blows him. He’s tired, but this feels good. He goes boneless when he comes and almost enjoys it when Hux crawls over him to breathe against his neck.

“Roll over. I don’t want you to die on top of me.”

Hux’s fingers twitch in his grasp when he comes back this time. He holds onto Poe’s hand and breathes shakily.

“Let’s go to my quarters. I’m tired and I can’t fuck you right now, anyway. I’ll do it in the morning.” It sounds the opposite of sexy when Poe says it, but it feels like another task to cross off his to-do list. He glares at Hux for a second. That’s the last thing he needs. At least this is one thing he knows how to do.

Poe wakes up first. He checks that Hux is actually asleep and not dead next to him and then tries not to wake him. He stupidly wants to put this off for as long as he can, because if it doesn’t work then it means they will soon have to accept that they don’t actually have any good ideas about how to deal with it. 

Hux stirs next to him and Poe takes a moment to just look at him. He looks peaceful and almost vulnerable, like a real living person.

“Let’s do this.” No point in delaying the inevitable.

It’s only been a few hours, but already he’s getting used to the way Hux clings to him. The way he pants against his neck and wraps his legs tightly around Poe’s waist are certainly new.

“You okay?”

Hux breathes unevenly. “Don’t rush.”

“I’ll make it good for you. I know what I’m doing.”

“Just bring me back to life,” Hux says.

Poe laughs. “No pressure, though, right?”

“That is why we’re doing this for. If I wanted–” Hux cuts himself off and looks away.

“If you wanted what? If you wanted to fuck you would’ve just asked nicely? I hope so. This ‘fuck me back to life’ act is not as romantic as you might think.”

“Dameron, get to it.”

Hux feels undeniably alive underneath him, around him. Warm, inviting and responsive. He looks it too. He’s sweaty and flushed and throws his head back when Poe leans down and bites his neck, wanting to see if a mark will manifest. More evidence that he’s alive and will continue to be so for as long as they’re touching.

Poe wants to prolong this for as long as he can, unprepared to deal with whatever the outcome might be. There’s only so much either of them can do, though. He wraps his hand around Hux’s cock and tells him, with confidence he’s not feeling, “it’ll work this time.”

When he sees and feels Hux coming, it’s easy to convince himself it’s true. That it’s _already_ worked. He thrusts faster and harder now, wanting to hear more of Hux’s almost shocked exhales against his skin.

Afterward, Poe rests his head against Hux’s shoulder until his breathing is back under control. He moves away, but doesn’t get too far before Hux is grabbing his hand.

Poe squeezes it once and says, “we need to know.”

Hux swallows. “I know.” He lets go of Poe’s hand and takes a deep breath.

And then keeps breathing.


End file.
